Wrongful Death Claim Filed Against Rocketdyne : Courts: The suit seeks $100 million in an explosion that killed two at a test site near Chatsworth last year.
The family of a Rocketdyne physicist killed in an explosion last year at a test site west of Chatsworth has filed a $100-million damage claim against Rocketdyne and the firm that made a compound involved in the blast.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Tuesday--the day before the one-year anniversary of the explosion that killed Otto K. Heiney, 53, and Larry Pugh, also a physicist, at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Heiney’s widow, Judith L. Heiney of Florida, and the Heineys’ two children. It includes a $25-million wrongful death claim against Rocketdyne, its corporate parent, Rockwell International Inc., and three executives--Donald R. Beall, Rockwell chief executive officer; Paul B. Smith, Rocketdyne president, and J.F. Weber, former manager of energetic chemistry and propellants.
The complaint also seeks $25 million for each of three product-liability claims against Hercules Inc., which the suit says produced the nitrocellulose in the chemical mixture that blew up.
Rocketdyne spokesman Paul Sewell said it is the company’s policy not to comment on pending litigation. But he said that “what happened last year was a tragic accident that affected all of us at Rocketdyne.”
“We grieve with the families, and a year later we still look back on that day with sadness,” he said.
Officials of Delaware-based Hercules could not be reached.
A separate lawsuit by the Pugh family is also expected this week to beat a one-year statute of limitations.
Although it provides no details, the 11-page complaint filed Tuesday asserts that the blast that killed Heiney was part of an illegal waste-disposal operation.
That suspicion is at the heart of a criminal probe made public two weeks ago, when the FBI and investigators from other agencies served a search warrant and seized documents at Rocketdyne headquarters in Canoga Park. Federal authorities have since disclosed that they are investigating whether the experiments Rocketdyne said Heiney and Pugh were conducting were merely a ruse to illegally dispose of explosive waste.
Rocketdyne officials have declined comment on the federal probe.
In the claims against Hercules, the suit accuses the firm of failing to provide adequate information and warnings on the hazards of nitrocellulose.
Following the accident, the state job-safety agency Cal/OSHA sought more than $200,000 in penalties against Rocketdyne for violations of explosives safety rules. The company has appealed the citations and penalties.
